WASHINGTON — A trio of key White House advisers on Tuesday hinted for the first time that they could support a progressive proposal to cap price increases for certain medicines, speaking at a closed-door Capitol Hill briefing of Republican senators.
Health secretary Alex Azar joined Joe Grogan, the president’s top policy adviser, to encourage senators to pursue bipartisan legislation on drug pricing and potentially to include one idea from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that would cap some drug price hikes at the rate of inflation, according to senators who attended. Multiple lobbyists and an administration spokeswoman told STAT the White House also deployed Eric Ueland, its top congressional liaison, to the meeting.
The administration’s openness to the idea — which hasn’t yet earned the formal support of many Democrats, let alone Republicans — serves as the latest evidence that the Trump administration has become increasingly reliant on Capitol Hill for a victory on drug costs and, perhaps, increasingly pliable on policy. Their Capitol Hill drop-in followed a month in which drug makers hiked prices, Democratic presidential candidates ratcheted up their own rhetoric on the issue, and a federal court on Monday struck down the White House’s signature drug pricing accomplishment.
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